Milyoni

Milyoni helps entertainment companies like Universal Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount Studios and Austin City Limits Live bring their content to Facebook in a new way by providing a fun, unique level of engagement and a shared, social experience. Using Milyoni’s Social Cinema and Social Live technologies, fans can easily view, like and comment throughout a movie, TV show, concert or sporting event and chat with friends while watching. Over the past year Milyoni has powered several social entertainment industry firsts, including the first PPV movie on Facebook, the first live PPV concert on Facebook, the first socially interactive movie on Facebook, the first day-and-date movie release on Facebook, and most recently the first 3D movie on Facebook.

Why ATA?

“Minimizing the time and effort to raise capital is a critical advantage that ATA’s experience and network have provided Milyoni.”

In 2010, seeking their first institutional investment, Milyoni founders John Corpus and David Raycroft returned to ATA Ventures’ Hatch Graham with an investment opportunity. Having been executives in a prior ATA Ventures portfolio company, the reunion was a success. Working together, Milyoni and ATA broadened the launch of the Milyoni Social Commerce platform, quickly building a composite Facebook fan base that exceeded 15 million fans.

“We carried in a philosophy of ‘Speed is Life’ to rapidly build an established footprint in the market. As a first time CEO, I knew I could rely on Hatch’s business management background to help me avoid the common pitfalls of accelerating growth.”John Corpus, CEO

In an effort to optimize the complex financial dynamics of an emerging industry, Hatch worked with the Milyoni executives to establish a business model that would accelerate the profitability of client deployment without negatively affecting growth. By March of 2011, Milyoni had 65 customers with more than 30 million cumulative fans.

Through the process, a unique area of social cinema entertainment was identified as a potential home run for the company. To fuel the next phase of Milyoni’s development, ATA offered to lead another inside round of financing in March, 2011. With capital in place, Hatch worked with the Milyoni team to establish the terms of a major agreement with Warner Brothers to launch the world’s first Pay-Per-View Movie experience over Facebook.

By the end of 2011, Milyoni had secured its place as the leader in social entertainment viewing within Facebook. With over 3,000 titles under contract and 15 of the top studios signed to agreements, a significant new round of financing was needed to support the expansion of the business.

“Hatch spent his winter holiday working with us to prepare for the fund-raising, including a 2012 business plan and presentation. During the traditional shutdown week, he reached out to two venture capital colleagues with strong experience in our industry. Within a week, we were presenting to both firms.” John Corpus

The end result was an attractive term sheet delivered quickly, leading to a highly successful Series B fund-raising event. With the expansion capital in place, the company began the efforts to solidify its position as the leading innovator in interactive movie viewing within the world’s leading social network.